Could You Afford a Season Ticket If You Lived Near Your Favorite Premier League Club?

Imagine for a minute that you lived in England and that you finally had the chance to watch your favorite Premier League club in person. Like me, if you’re such a die-hard supporter of your team, you would definitely look into how much it would cost to buy a season ticket so you wouldn’t miss a home match.

But then — shock, horror — you look at the sticker price to see how much it would set you back.

Season ticket prices differ greatly in the Premier League depending on the club. But at the high end, the club with the most expensive season ticket prices is Arsenal. The cheapest season ticket is £925 while the most expensive one is approximately £5,200. In US dollars, that’s between $1,448 and $8,142. No matter how wonderful Arsenal is to watch, those are extremely aggressive prices even if the wages in London are higher than in other parts of England. And those prices don’t include the cost to become a member just so you have the right to purchase season tickets.

And that’s the price for one season ticket. Just imagine if you wanted to bring your partner, friend or child with you to home matches throughout a season!

Yes, season ticket prices for other clubs are less expensive than Arsenal, but if you lived in England, could you and would you pay for a season ticket for your favorite club? Would you draw the line and say it’s too expensive, or would you fork over the hard-earned cash? Share your opinions in the comments section below.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

21 Comments

BrettJanuary 26, 2012

That comes to about $55-$315 a game assuming 25 home games (PL and Cup matches). I believe that’s about on par with many NFL season tickets.

But that would likely be for the 19 league matches only. Cup tickets – that many clubs auto bill you for – are extra. Your low end is now about £72. Still within NFL ranges. But where the NFL offers 8 weekends, Footy grabs 9+ months of the year.

For me, it’s not the money so much as the time. I could afford a season ticket and would love to go to every match, but a huge part of my love of football is sharing the game with my kids. Spending all my time with my club would definitely cut into the time I now spend with the family. Being absentee dad every second weekend for 9+ months, leaving Mrs BR home with three little’uns, would be grounds for divorce.

…and then I couldn’t afford my season ticket!

I think I’d go to as many as I can and try to hit up the odd 3rd division club; find a “kid for a quid” promotion and take the little’uns. so they can get a smell of the “old school fitba” experience on weekends when I’m dying for a match and we’re away.

I don’t even have season tickets for the Yankees or Jets, so I doubt I would buy season tickets for Chelsea. Also the main reason I don’t have Jets tickets is you need to pay for the rights to buy ticrts for that seat and that ranges from $2500 to $4000 depending on where the seat is located.

Don’t the Jets do something similar? You have to pay each year to stay on the waiting list for season tickets? I’m pretty sure I heard that somewhere, and that the waiting list fee does not go toward the tickets if your number comes up. Considering how long it can take to rise up the list, that can add up. Not Chelsea fees add up, but add up nonetheless.

In the big picture, that rights purchase isn’t any different that paying an initiation fee to a golf course, and lots of people don’t bat an eye at that expense.

There used to be a waiting list when they played at Giants stadium, when they movied to the new stadium they needed money to pay off the stadium so they raised ticket prices and implemented personal seating licences. So you have to pay from $2500 to $4000 per seat to get the rights to buy the tickets for those seats. That’s 2 preseason games and 8 regular season games for a total of ten. They are so desperate to sell tickets now they called me to wondering if I would like to buy tickets because I bought a jersey off of the Jets’ website.

Yeah, the money isn’t bad, you can maybe split the tickets with someone else if you really had an issue with it, but the time is huge. It is the reason why I don’t get Sounders season tickets. I have a half season package which is about once a month for a game. While I can easily go to all games, it is too much time to go to all.

I moved to London 18 months ago and live 2 miles from the Emirates, and no, I do not buy season tickets (nor could I, as they are oversubscribed and there is a waiting list). I love Arsenal and watch every match, but I pay Arsenal ticket prices only to see the top EPL teams and Champions League matches. I will not pay those prices to see matches against poor sides when, for the same money, I can go to 2-3 matches at Craven Cottage to see Fulham (i.e., Dempsey) play against top opposition, or see Spurs play 2 mid-table sides in the great atmosphere at White Hart Lane.

I was very sorry when West Ham were relegated, as last season I was able to get fantastic seats at Upton Park for their matches against both Man Utd and Man City for less than I paid to see Arsenal’s dire 3rd round FA cup tie against Wigan.

It doesn’t really seem that ridiculous to me. Seattle Sounders season tickets range from $436 – $1642, and that’s for the same number of games. The Seahawks in the NFL would be more like $550 – $3670 and that’s only for 10 games, 2 of which are exhibition.

Absolutely not, it’s way too much money and time to commit to a season, and I’m not paying to watch Blackburn and Wigan. But this is a ticking time bomb for clubs in the U.K., as deleveraging and foreclosures have barely begun in numbers that will be necessary to return the economy back to the historically stable ratio of debt to income. Translation: there is a lot economic pain on the horizon for Britain, and football tickets are not a necessity like food on the table. Maybe the top clubs in London won’t suffer as much with the base of high-income fans, but many mid-to-lower-table clubs are going to suffer. The value these teams put on tickets will be exposed as too high for the “new normal” economy, and if they want butts in the seats, prices will have to come down. If not, you’ll see empty seats. Without oil barons in charge, Arsenal, and Liverpool will not be entirely immune despite the fan base– especially if they don’t qualify for Champions League!

The answer is you get the season tickets w/ a group of families or couples that you trust. You divide the opponents into levels like A (United, LFC, Chelsea, etc), B and C. Then you split the games evenly amongst the group with each member getting and equal allocation of A, B, and C games.

With that said, partial season tickets work very well also. As a kid my Dad and I always had “16 game plan” tickets for the Phillies. Later in Boston my wife and I had “10 game plan” tickets for the Celtics. The prices were reasonable, there was a mix of opponent quality, and you still got priority for post season games.

I said no just because i couldn’t afford it. i’m a laker fan too and can’t even justify driving 6 hours and spending $600 on one seat at a good game for them… wife, kids… ticket prices are a joke for guys with regular jobs, a house, car, other bills…

That said, I would spend fat for good seats at one big game a year if I lived in north london. I’d put it in the budget.

£349 for my season ticket over the four years in the Premier League so far, £40 for 3 Europa league group matches, £9 for Valencia away. Can’t grumble at that. This thread says a lot about the difference in the two sporting cultures, e.g I only want to pay to watch ‘my’ club against the top teams, other than that I’m not interested, versus fans here who travel the length and breadth of the country (or continent) and work second jobs to pay for it.

As for supporting Arsenal but paying to watch Spurs or Fulham! Unreal. I understand why you’d have to try out other grounds but when you pick your team you should be aware that you don’t choose Arsenal for their noisy crowd. It’s more like a night at the opera with Tarquin and co.

The sad reality is that given the teams most of you choose to follow you wouldn’t get a ticket anyway as their waiting lusrs